The perfect choice for beds and borders. Superb for baskets, containers and window boxes. Wonderful for combination plantings. Upright habits are ideal for high-density small pot production. Day-neutral flowering - blooms early and ensures you go to market first. Upright habits are ideal for high-density small pot production. Day-neutral flowering - blooms early and ensures you go to market first.
Description
Lobelia provides a wonderful palette of blue shades to broaden the possibilities of interesting garden design. The flowers and foliage appear delicate up close, but merge into a dense mass of color from a distance. Although the flowers and foliage are dainty and delicate in appearance, this is a robust plant that brings a bold splash of color to the garden. The trailing habit is especially well suited to hanging baskets where it forms a rounded mass of color. The blue shades are a unique color accent for mixed container plantings.
Additional Info
Some plants are grown only for their attractive foliage (such as coleus, dusty miller and flowering kale). Their flowers are not very showy and any buds should be pinched off to keep the foliage looking its best." "New plantings should be watered daily for a couple of weeks. After that, depending on the weather and soil type, watering can be adjusted to every two or three days. Clay soils hold moisture longer than sandy soils, so expect to water more frequently in sandy settings.
To check for soil moisture use your finger or a small trowel to dig in and examine the soil. If the first 2-4” (5-10cm) of soil is dry, it is time to water.
Different plants have different water needs. Some plants prefer staying on the dry side, others like to be consistently moist. Refer to the plant label to check a plant’s specific requirements.
Ideally water should only be applied to the root zone - an area roughly 6-12” (15-30cm) from the base of the plant, not the entire plant. A soaker hose is a great investment for keeping plants healthy and reducing water lost through evaporation. Hand watering using a watering wand with a sprinkler head attached is also a good way to control watering. If the garden area is large, and a sprinkler is necessary, try to water in the morning so that plant foliage has time to dry through the day. Moist foliage encourages disease and mold that can weaken or damage plants.
Pruning
Prune plants freely to maintain the desired size and shape. Pinching plants back stimulates dense, bushy new growth and encourages more flowers.
Remove old flowers to keep plant looking healthy and prevent seed production that drains the plant’s energy at the expense of forming new flowers.
The blooms of this species resemble tiny fans, unfolded against the summer heat. Perennial in its native Australia, fan flower is a favorite for use...
